Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Energy sector reforms critical for development

Addressing journalists at a press conference in Accra on Sunday on Ghana’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) Programme and Growth Agenda, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, reiterated the government’s plans to prioritise the energy sector as part of a comprehensive host of structural reforms aimed at driving Ghana’s economic growth and development.

Acknowledging the crucial role of the energy sector, he said the government was committed to addressing the challenges in the energy sector head-on by adopting the comprehensive reforms outlined in the Energy Sector Recovery Plan, which are aimed at reducing losses and improving financial stability within the sector.

We believe Ghanaians would expect the materialisation of the government’s plans for the energy sector because of the history of unstable power supply in the country.

If Ghanaians would forget all their mishaps, including power outages in their history, it would be very difficult for them to forget the period 2012-2016 in which they suffered the worst power outages, particularly in 2014 when they suffered a total of 159 days of outages.

That five-year period of extremely unstable power supply truly would not be forgotten because it gave birth to the expression ‘dumsor’, which has now become a global term well understood by even non-Ghanaians.

No doubt, energy has become a foundation stone of the country’s economy as it provides the power to drive various human activities.

Intermittent power or complete absence of it therefore derails domestic, commercial, industrial and other human activities undertaken by the people.

Thus, the Akufo-Addo administration would enjoy special acclaim if it resolves the challenges in the energy sector and ensures stable and affordable supply of power for use by the people as promised.

In fact, compared with the rest of Africa, Ghana is praised to have one of the highest access to electricity but demand keeps rising due to expansion of communities and opening of businesses, including small-scale ones by individuals.

However, the country experiences challenges of supply such as breakdown of machinery, lack of fuel to power machinery, issues with distribution and lack of enough capital to meet supply.

We have not forgotten the high tariffs either, which make the people keep complaining about affordability.

In the face of all these challenges, we pray that as promised, the government would operationalise the frameworks like those for granting energy sector subsidies; and implementing the inter-utility debt settlement framework on a quarterly basis starting from this month (June 2023).

We are making reference to the measures the government intends to implement immediately because they are said to have the potential to contribute to reducing the estimated financial shortfall by at least US$2.95 billion over the period 2023 to 2025 by streamlining financial processes, enhancing transparency, and improving cash flow management within the sector.

We wish the government well and hope its good intentions to ensure stable and affordable power would be sustained because the benefits are enormous for both domestic and commercial activities, as such activities will translate into the progress of the peoples and the total development of the country.